I have heard soooo many bad and harsh reviews on this and thought ok, gonna avoid it. Then my curiosity got the better of me when I came across ONE blog that said she loved it. I picked it up finally after a year of ignoring it.

It is stunning. Its one of those polishes that you LOVE or HATE. there is no inbetween with this. I get it. It's very textured, which i LOVE and it's VERY unique. With the amount of polish I own and love, I want unique and different. I like new and weird and edgy things in all life.

This is her. She is very textured to the point of being sandpaper ish, she sparkles like a hidden diamond in the rough, and she is gorgeous. I had ZERO application issues. I keep reading about people having so many problems, but I had none. She is opaque in 2 coats and she dried super fast and is very sparkly. She is a serious top coat eater so be ready.

Definitely looks like caviar with diamonds on the nails. Mine did come out like the swatches Essie advertized and I am very pleased.

I was so excited to try this polish. I had seen a few advertisements and it looked amazing. However,reality did not match up. It went on fairly opaque, but it was really hard to get the sparkles to show. I also really did not like the texture, which is far more sandpaper like than it appears in the Essie advertising.

Yikes! I was not ready for this. I purchased this on a whim, based on a pic I saw in a magazine of the bottle. I had no idea it was a sand/caviar finish. Imagine my shock when I tried to apply it. It's like trying to spread black tar on your nails. It's so thick, I can't see how anyone could apply this cleanly, and get it to stick properly. My bad for not doing the research beforehand, but even then, I would have given it a try. The ONLY way I can see this working is to use a plain black polish and do your nails, then take a glop of the Belugaria and spread it around on top as a finish.. Live and learn. I guess now I know what I suspected...caviar and sand finishes are not for me.

I can definitely see this polish being polarizing. It is so pretty, but so high maintenance.

THE GOOD: Belugaria is a chunky "sand" finish black polish with large holo glitter. There is nothing else out there like this color (that I have encountered.) It is a really cool color. It also dries extremely quickly.

THE BAD: This polish has a TON of glitter. I saw a quote from an Essie spokesperson who said Belugaria was 50% polish, 50% glitter. This, combined with how quickly it dries, makes the formula difficult to work with. It is really easy to use too much and have the polish build up too much on you. Or not work quickly enough and have the polish dry before you're done shaping it. Both options make you end up with overly chunky, amateurish looking nails. IMO, 2 coats is the most you can use of this polish without it looking overdone.

So I would NOT suggest using several coats of this polish by itself. I would suggest using a regular black polish underneath, then one coat of Belugaria as a topcoat. If you aren't satisfied with the glitter coverage after one coat, I would suggest touching up just the parts that you think need more glitter, not the entire nail. So one or two coats of black, one coat of Belugaria and spot touch-ups as needed.

ETA-OK, I think I've cracked it. I was playing with Belugaria on my nail polish wheel to try out different techniques. I was noticing that you have to be careful to clear the black off of the holo hex glitter while you're working. If the holo glitter are covered, it doesn't look as cool. I was thinking that if you could use topcoat, you could just put it on while the NP is slightly wet to clear off the glitter. So I touched some topcoat on the tip of each Belugaria nail. This technique cleared off a lot more of the holo glitters and the end result was much better looking. Belugaria with TC doesn't look as striking, matte (obvs) or chunky as it is supposed to. But just wait 10-20 minutes, because, like most glitter polishes, Belugaria is a serious topcoat eater. After enough time has elapsed, the topcoat will be absorbed and you will be left with a lot of visible holo glitter. ETA 2-All of the above is correct, but I have found that this technique will leave you with a semi-gloss finish even after the TC has been absorbed. Part of what makes Belugaria so cool is how flat of a matte finish it has. To that end, I would probably skip the TC and maybe wipe the polish off of the glitter with a clean brush.

I gave Belugaria only three lippies, because the formula is such a PITA to work with. Maybe that's harsh, but the formula can be such a turnoff that I would be surprised if it is the big seller it deserves to be. Just based on the color, it would be four lippies for sure. So I will revisit that rating if I find ways to work with it better.

It really is a cool, unique color and I would definitely buy it again. It could be such a showstopper, if managed correctly.

I actually love the matte texture with holographic sparkles. Kinda grungy, kinda sparkly, absolutely one of a kind. I truly have no other polish like this in my collection. Yes, it does NOT apply like a normal polish but i think that adds to the uniqueness and beauty of this polish. Love.

This is the new "caviar" polish from Essie's Encrusted Treasures collection. I picked this up at Ulta after reading about it and the hype surrounding the polish. This is a texture polish. When pulling the brush out of the bottle, you see silver microglitter, large hex holographic glitter, and the sand texture is noticeable. The first coat appears to be dark brown. I used the first coat just to cover the nail and the second to fill in any patches and move the glitter and the texture sand around. This polish dries quickly. After 2 coats, you get a blackened, gritty, appearance with the holo hex glitter peeking out. The color is deep true black after the second coat. At first when I saw swatches of this polish, I thought I would hate it. But when I tried it on the nail, I actually really like it. The texture is gritty but shiny, and really different. I believe I read one review where the reviewer likened it to black lace lingerie for the nails. I really enjoy this as it's different. The glitter is very apparent in the sun and if you like different or unusual nail polishes, I would pick this up. This retailed for $8 at Ulta.

Edit. I took this off several fingers to redo. This gets VERY thick the more you use and it can become really difficult to maneuver around the sand and glitter. The more I used it, the more difficult it became. I ended up adding about 10 drops of thinner. The neck of the bottle also becomes thickly caked with the sand very quickly, so I wiped the neck and the brush down. Took one lippie off for this, but i suppose it's to be expected with a textured polish.

Its black and glittery, which is cute but when Essie emailed me the ad for this I thought this would be a lot cuter. Yeah its realllllyyy textured, which is trendy, but this chips way too easily and is not actually too flattering. Plus I needed three coats which is just unneccessary